


Strangers

by itsneptune



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: ChanBaek - Freeform, Exotic Dancer Minseok, M/M, XiuChen - Freeform, its kinda sad, kinda happy end though, singer Jongdae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 18:25:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14699763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsneptune/pseuds/itsneptune
Summary: Nobody quite knew what the two of them were. And yeah, maybe there really was no 'they'. Maybe it was just a physicall attraction, nothing worth bringing further to begin with.





	Strangers

_ Inspired by Halseys song "Strangers" (I request you listen to it while reading) _

- _Nobody quite knew what the two of them were. Most people didn't even know they existed. And yeah, maybe there really was no 'they''. Maybe they were just two people who didn't fit and didn't belong to each other. It must be that way, because they never spoke to each other, other than on the rare occasions they saw each other. They didn't do all this things that couples did, no kisses, no loving hugs, so yes, they really were no couple. Maybe it was just a physicall attraction, nothing worth bringing further to begin with.-_

Minseok was lying next to Jongdae who was still a bit sweaty but sleeping, looking quite angelic to be honest. Minseok loved it when the youngers hair was a bit damp and sticking to his forehead, it made the light curls, that his hair indeed had, show. Jongdae tried to flatten them out, not liking them, but Minseok did. Whenever Jongdae would try to flatten his hair Minseok would ruffle it. And his lashes, they touched his cheeks, shining like silver in the moonlight. But Minseok was thinking this because he was a little tipsy and tired. He groaned as he swung his feet over the edge of the bed. He really didn't want to leave the mulberry silk sheets. It was another trait of Jongdae, he loved silk sheets. Minseok was actually sorry for messing them up everytime he came over (and he came over quite often lately). Like always, he didn't listen to the voice that told him to stay with the boy, who had skin just as soft as the sheets underneath him and stood up. He searched for his clothes in the dark, hoping he wasn't accidentally putting on Jongdae's underwear instead of his own. Grabbing his phone and checking the time he sighed, it was 02:30. Not really a good time to walk home alone. But what could he do. He tiptoed to the door of Jongdae's bedroom, giving a last glance back at the brown haired man on the black silk sheets. His skin had a blueish glowing tone in the moonlight. Minseok thought about tucking him in, because he could catch a cold lying in there sweaty but it was warm in the room, so he left him like that. He made his way to the door without stumbling over music papers or other stuff that littered Jongdae's floor. The younger wasn't half as neat of a person as Minseok was.

He stepped out into the hallway, into the unpleasant smell of cleaning agent and the warm lights of a small chandelier. His shoes clacked on the floor as it changed to polished marble instead of soft carpet. Was it even marble? He had no interest in floor coverings at all but he was pretty sure this place couldn't afford marble. Although he always felt like he was leaving a expensive hotelroom when he left Jongdae's appartment.

As the elevator dropped him off in the Lobby of the appartment complex, he had to face the aggrivating task to get pass the night watchman at the front desk. The man always looked at him like he was worth shit. Minseok sure knew he looked provocative and unusual with his orange hair, ripped jeans and the see-through shirt. But it was not like he had ever given the man a reason to dislike him. It was probably just the fact that he came out of Kim Jongdae's appartment with mussed up hair at half past three at night. And the watchman would better keep his mouth shut about this. A nightclub dancer sleeping with a well known singer weren't really news that should spread. It wouldn't be good for Jongdae's career.

After getting a really judging onceover from the watchman and asking polietly for the door to be unlocked, he finally stepped out into the cold night air. He looked back up at the nice building while walking away. Did he enjoy coming here? He wasn't sure.

His phone rang, distracting him. He had to fumble about a bit until he got it out of the backpoket of his tight jeans.

"Yeah?" he breathed out, forming little steam clouds in the cold air with his breath.

"Where are you?" the quite annoyed voice of Byun Baekhyun rang through the speakers.

"Uh, out... why?"

"You know that you missed your shift, right homie?"

Minseok scrunched his face. Shit, he had a shift today?

"Actually, no?"

"Well you did so I could work two hours longer because of you," Baekhyun sighed, "howsoever you shouldn't keep on sleeping around with that Jongdae guy, wich I am sure you just did, you should stop it. You're getting unusually forgetful."

"I am sorry I'll make it up to you," Minseok said, ignoring Baekhyun's remark about his not so relationship.

Baekhyun scoffed. "Make it up to Chanyeol who's waiting for me at home."

Minseok grinned. "Well I can't really suck h-"

"Thank you, I think I heard enough," Baekhyun cut him off, "but on a serious note Min. Get your shit together. You are being strange lately."

Baekhyun had never really treated Minseok like he was older than him and was a blunt person. And really, he was just worrying about Minseok, but it fell on deaf ears.

"I will take your shift another time then, whenever you'd like me to," he kept on, again not being responsive to Baekhyun's quite obvious advice.

Baekhyun just sighed and accepted that Minseok was being bullish, not wanting to talk about the subject of a particular famous singer.

"Okay take my shift tomorrow then. You know the worst one." Baekhyun muttered.

Minseok sighed but nodded, wich Baekhyun couldn't really hear through the phone though. The friday night shift was that one shift none of the dancers wanted to have. He wasn't even sure why Baekhyun always took it. Not only you worked on a 'supposed to be free' friday night, friday meant much clubgoers, meant much wasted people. The possibility of getting groped while dancing or getting dirty acclamations was just way higher on weekends. It was something to be expected on his job, and Minseok couldn't really complain. It could be way worse. At least his job didn't include stripping anything other than his shirt from time to time and dancing. But still he didn't like how people would try to dig their fingers into his thighs, their eyes glossy from alcohol. In those moments he just always wished the stage was set a little higher, so that they couldn't reach out to him.

"You still there?" Baekhyun pulled him from his thoughts.

"Huh? I mean yes, I will take your shift tomorrow," he told Baekhyun, "and tell Chanyeol I am sorry, too."

Baekhyun just let out a deep exasperated sigh. Minseok felt like Baekhyun did literally nothing but sighing during their whole talk.

"Good. Are you getting home savely?"

Minseok rolled his eyes, wich again, Baekhyun couldn't see through the phone.

"Wait, who of the two of us is younger again? And who has the Taekwondo skills?

"Goddamnit every time Min. Every time. Just let me worry about you in peace," Baekhyun chuckled.

"Get home savely Baek. Goodnight," Minseok said.

"Yeah. Yeah you too. Bye."

He lightly chuckled and shook his head. Baekhyun was one of his best and only friends but sometimes he was very pensive. He was worrying about other lives more than his own. Must have picked that up from Chanyeol.

He shivered a bit as a fresh wind picked up. He was about to transcend the borders of the nice parts of the city to the more derelict quarters. What didn't change was that it was deadly quiet. All he could hear was the wind, his own breathing, the clacking of his shoes and the buzz of a flickering streetlight above his head. Silence was never good. Silence makes you overthink.

He hurried a bit, bypassing closed shops in the ground floors of red-brick buildings and courtyards that were protected with mesh wire fences.

Shortly after, he climbed up the stairs to his small apartment. Yes, stairs, no elevator like at Jongdaes apartment. He finally fully relaxed as he closed the door behind himself. Now he truly realized how tired he was and that he had just enough alcohol in his system to wake up with a headache tomorrow. Why did he agree on going to Jongdae's anyways? But he knew that he always did and that it always ended like this and that he never truly regretted it, although he always complained to himself. He pushed his shoes of his feet, leaving them at the door.

No matter how spent he was, Minseok still was keeping the perfect order, that his home was in, up. He washed his face and put his clothes away, even remembering to go grab some water and painkillers before slipping under his sheets. They were raspy in comparision to Jongdaes silk sheets and again he asked himself, why he even left their softness behind to walk all the way home through the cold weather. As he drifted off to sleep he recalled his answer for this question clearly. Jongdae didn't want him to wake up next to him in the morning.

_-Nobody could tell them they were not fitting each other because they wouldn't listen to the truth. They were comfortably pretending to not realize that what they had wasn't love. Basically they were strangers, both craving for love that they didn't get from anybody else. They didn't quite find it in each other either, but it was easy to pretend, pretend and forget.-_

Jongdaes eyelashes were sticking together as he tried to pry his eyes open at the nerve-racking sound of his digital alarm clock. The realization of a nearly sleepless night and an early schedule dawned on him and he grumbled and turned over, automatically reaching his hand out to that specific person next to him. But that person wasn't there. Jongdae only gripped the empty sheets and sighed, finally facing the task to eventually get up. He managed to sit up and turn off his alarm. It was still pitch black in his bedroom, so he got to his feet slowly, wincing due to a slight pain shooting down his spine. Oh right, he didn't shower last night. He hated this mornings when he got out of bed and just felt gross. He, in generally, hated mornings where he had to get up when it was dark out. Wich was basically every morning. But waking up allone on stained sheets with barely five hours of sleep added to his morning grudge.

In the shower he finally began to feel better. Now that the grumpyness disappeared the slight sting of sadness took over. He couldn't quite decipher it. It was just there, nagging at him since weeks. And he had it nearly every morning. He willed himself to push it aside because he had other things he needed to think about. He was a generally busy person and he couldn't allow himself to take time to brood over feelings he didn't even understand.

He dressed himself. Checking if he at least looked acceptable, he frowned, his hair was sticking into every damn direction and his curls were showing. All thanks to Minseok who combed his fingers through them last night. Again, he felt that sickening feeling in his stomach. Minseok had fallen asleep next to him last night as they were both still sweaty and spent and in the back of his mind he hoped that, for once, Minseoks inner clock wouldn't work and he would wake up next to him in the morning. But Minseoks inner clock never seemed to fail. He must've gotten up while Jongdae was asleep, maybe at two or three in the morning and sneaked out.

As he stumbled to the general direction of his kitchen, just awake enough to at least switch the light on so he wouldn't trip on his way, he picked up some music papers lying in his way. One of them had a bit of dirt on it, formed exactly in the shape of the sole of Minseoks elegant, clacking leather shoes. He sighed as he picked it up. He should at least try to tidy his appartment more often.

He remembered to lock his front door, after he brewed some coffee. He was very aware that it was dangerous to leave his door unlocked, even in a building with a watchman. But he always made that exception for Minseok so he could come and go as he pleased. For a moment, Jongdae thought about what would happen if he would just decide to lock the door one day. But he knew he wouldn't. As he looked at his wristwatch he startled a bit. He had to be downstairs in ten minutes to be picked up by his manager. He had to hurry.

As always, Jongdae gave the sleep deprived watchman behind the front desk a friendly nod as he walked pass him. But lately, the watchman didn't give one back, he just stared at Jongdae as if the latter was something that was kind of disgusting, appealing on first sight, but not so much anymore when you look at it closely.  Jongdae had a suspicion as to why that happened. He couldn't really judge the man for it. The man would cover up for him because that was his job and that was all Jongdae could hope for and he was thankful for it.

As he stepped out of the building, the morning had become grey, that  phase between night and sunrise where the world seemed colorless. He saw only one man as he walked down the sidewalk. The man wore a suit and his face was as grey as their surroundings. He didn't smile, he didn't even look at Jongdae as their ways crossed. Maybe, Jongdae thought, if he had taken the office job his father did suggest for him, he would look like this man now. Caught in his daily routine. Jongdae's job was probably stressier, but at least entertaining.

Junmyeon, as always, parked in front of the apartment building, halfway on the sidewalk, halfway on the street. The older man waved at Jongdae with a disposable cup that most likely contained Caramel Frappucino, his favourite.

"You're a bit late."

"Sorry, it was a long night yesterday," Jongdae mumbled as he got into the passanger seat.

Junmyeon wrinkled his nose but said nothing. Jongdae could practically hear the 'Well if you would just go to bed on time you wouldn't have that problem now'  for it was lingering in the air.

It wasn't like Jongdae was going to complain about his bad manager now because Junmyeon  was not at all bad. He was precise and quick, reliable and efficient. Most people who met him for the first time said he had a dry and uninteresting personality, when in fact he was a pleasant company, although his jokes weren't all that funny most of the time. And he was caring about Jongdae not just because he got paid for it, but because he was a generally good person. The type of person who adopts stray cats and donates his spare money for good causes.

"So what's up so early?" Jongdae questioned after a while of comfortable silence and driving past apartment block after apartment block.

"Hairdressers," Junmyeon stated calmly, "the company wants you to change hairstyles for the comeback."

"I can sense that I won't like it already," Jongdae sighed and looked out of the window.

"So unbelievably pessimistic today, what happened?"

"I-," he began but stopped himself. Yeah what had happened? "I just got up on the wrong side of the bed."

"Well you better get rid of that for the recordings today. They won't like to see you sulk."

Jongdae sighed. It was going to be a long day. He could've used some distraction, but surpressed the urge to text a certain someone.

                       *

When he walked up the creamy  white steps of the large stair that led to the former opera this evening, his hair was no longer brown but black. That itself didn't bug him but the waves with wich they fell, he didn't like them. It looked a bit as if he had a comma on his front, one side of his hair was swung towards the other. At least it wasn't really a curl, more like a slick swing. The lights that flooded out of the opera were warm and golden, they already told of great experiences and  amazement. Bad thing was, this wasn't an opera anymore, so Jongdae wouldn't spend his evening listening to a nice orchestra or even a singer. No, he was here to pretend of maintaining his acquaintanceships, with people he didn't know and to donate money for kids with cancer. It was for promotion reasons, although he really cared about the kids and would have wanted to help them eitherway.

He was a well known singer but not to well known. He was spared fangirls lurking in front of his house because his fans respected him. He was almost afraid that if he got more popular, and he would with his now second album, that he would loose his nice and considerate fans to the more crazy types he had heard of from popular boybands. Eitherway he had no interest in bantering with the many famous women and men up in this past opera. It was tiring and in his believe, unnecessary. But it was his job and so he climbed the rest of the ostentatious stair and stepped into the warm lights, greeted with loud laughter, the clinking of champagne flutes and soft music.

When he descended the opera again, it was close to midnight. The cold night air emediately sneaked through every crease of his suit and he shivered as it clashed with his heated skin. But under that warm layer of skin, he felt hollow. He had seen to many fake and obnoxious smiles tonight. After too, faking comfortableness, he felt like his body was just a shell that wasn't really sure what belonged in its confines. He wondered what ate him up this badly. Usually, he wasn't like this and found it easy to talk with whoever he met and forget the nonsense smalltalk a second later. But tonight was strange, this whole day had been strange in fact. Oh who was he kidding, this whole month had been strange, all thanks to that damned nagging feeling, radiating from somewhere close to his gut, making him go crazy.

He climbed into the car that was supposed to get him home and told the driver to drop him off at a nearby park on the way. He didn't know where that idea even came from, he just knew he wanted to be allone for a while. He grabbed his phone from his suit pocket and unlocked it. No new messages except for Junmyeon informing him that he could sleep a little longer tomorrow, for one of his schedules had been cancelled. He sighed. Sometimes he would just like to see a text from a friend who asked if he was alright, especially on evenings like this one.

The driver dropped him off and he climed out into the cold air. He still had the mind not to soil his shoes and stay on the stone path that led through the park. Maybe it wasn't that good of an idea to come here, it was freaking cold and lonely. The shadows of trees projected distorted monsters onto the ground where street lights shone through their branches. He pulled out his phone again, stopping in the middle of nowhere and staring at the device in his hand. He could help his lonelyness. But did he want to text Minseok when he had done so just yesterday? He knew that it wasn't fair, but he also knew that he was lonely and hollow and just... needed someone. He began typing his usual message but stopped, his finger hovering over the send button. A strange idea sparked in him and instead of pressing send, he pressed Minseoks contact icon and his phone began beeping. After the second ring, he truly realized what he had done and for one moment, was terrified, but he couldn't change it anymore now.

After the fith ring somebody picked up.

"Baekhyun I was working so don't piss me off right now because I already majorly am," Minseok's voice rang through the speakers in a hard and distressed tone.

Jongdae awkwardly shifted and coughed. "Actually, it's Jongdae, not Baekhyun."

The line fell silent with only the faint noises of the thumping bass of a club in the background.

"Are you still there?" Jongdae asked, unsure.

"Uh yeah, yeah I mean... why are you calling?" Minseok stuttered out on the other end.

Jongdae's stomach knotted up for no reason and he hated it.

"I was just gonna- ask you if you wanted to come over?" he said slowly. The words were feeling wrong and heavy on his tongue.

He heard Minseok's breath louder than the club noises now.

"Yeah," Minseok said and Jongdae had never heard someone sound so firm and unsure at the same time.

"Give me some time though, I have to walk home," Jongdae all but whispered.

"Okay."

The connection was abrubtly cut off, nothing but a long static beep resonating in his ears. He closed his eyes and took at least two deep breaths before he began to walk again. He was now straight up freezing and shivering.

When he opened his apartments door, he went straight to the bedroom to change his sheets, the only thing he really needed to do. He then lay down on the bed on his back after discarding his jacket on a chair nearby. He thought of absolutely nothing, staring at the sealing blankly.

It seemed like an eternity until his doorbell rang. He got up and walked to the entrance and slowly unlocked the door. It revealed a pretty out of breath Minseok that was wearing an oversized jeans jacket and his usual ripped black jeans. He looked at him questionigly as if he wasn't sure Jongdae would let him in. In the warm and dim lights of the corridor his hair looked like melted copper, the orange even brighter and more vivid. The fact that he even noticed this made Jongdae strangely aware that today was different, just that something was off. Jongdae stepped back and Minseok stepped inside. Before Jongdae had fully closed the door, he felt Minseok's hands traveling up his back to his neck and his hair line.

"It suits you well," Minseok whispered.

"I figured you would like it," Jongdae replied. He staid still under the elders gentle touches, afraid of loosing them.

Softly, Minseok's fingers threaded into his hair and he pulled Jongdae around to face him. The kiss wasn't unexpected but unexceptionally sweet and longing for their relation. As if Minseok knew just how worn out Jongdae was. Maybe Minseok really knew him better than Jongdae thought all along. His hands slipped onto Minseok's hips in a way of routine but he staid gentle, his hands not gripping, just laying there. Minseok must have had a hard time too, Jongdae could tell, just by the way Minseok's fingers began to dig into his scalp in the middle of the kiss, unusual, as if afraid Jongdae would slip right through his fingers. He wanted to ask, wanted to know what had made Minseok so tense but he didn't get to so, because Minseok took him by his tie, dragging him through the entryway with their mouths still locked.

From there it was like always. Loosing their clothes somewhere between door and bed getting lost in each other. But Jongdae still noticed how Minseok was a little to gentle, a little to slow as if he wanted to make it last. And Jongdae noticed too, that he didn't feel this weird thing in his stomach and he felt free although he was caged under Minseok's body. And when his high hit him, his eyes fluttered shut and his back arched off the bed he knew he had played himself all along, pretending to be okay in exchange for his sanity. He opened his eyes and stared into Minseok's sweaty and absolutely beautiful face. The pupils of his feline eyes were still blown wide and a gentle smile was playing on his softly panting lips, one corner of his mouth raising up just a little higher. Minseok dipped his head down and one last time for tonight, kissed Jongdae. Slow and longing. It was a good night and goodbye kiss. Jongdae wasn't ready for goodbye yet. Minseok let himself fall into the sheets with a soft thump and some rustling of silk as he got comfortable, draping an arm over Jongdae's waist.

- _But they couldn't continue like this forever. They were pretending to be fine, being alone, but eventually, there had to be a point of break.-_

When Minseok woke up half an hour later, Jongdae was sleeping by his side. Minseok smiled at him lightly, but the smile broke with the dull ache in his chest. Ever so gently, he removed his arm from Jongdae's waist and was about to get up, only to find that somebody grabbed his wrist and held him hovering on the edge of the bed.

"Please don't go. Just once," Jongdae whispered in a raspy, sore voice.

Minseok was to surprised that Jongdae was awake to say anything. He felt like a planet pushed out of its orbit, not knowing what to do now. He looked back at Jongdae. Half of the younger mans face got enlightened by the pale moon outside. His gaze was scared and pleading.

Minseok faltered. Without a word he tried to get his wrist out of Jongdae's hold but Jongdae clung to him like a drowning man to a straw.

"Minseok...," Jongdae began and Minseok waited for the deadly blow, that Jongdae would tell him to never show up again. Because this was what had to happen when their cycle of habit and strict rules was broken. And dear lord it was shattered by now.

"... aren't we something like lovers by now?"

Minseok swallowed dryly, staring down at the man, whose live could be ruined if Minseok picked the false words now.

After long and painful seconds of nothing Minseok replied.

"No Jongdae, no we aren't. We are just... strangers."

The words came out of his mouth but still seemed somewhat stuck in his throat and he was choking on them.

Stranger would imply you don't know somebody. But Minseok knew Jongdae, knew he was a singer. Knew he loved silk sheets, liked his coffe black, loved ballad songs, hated curled hair, watched old animated Disney movies from time to time. He knew that Jongdae was always poliet and friendly, was a master at singing notes that were to high for most female singers and he knew every inch of Jongdae's body.

Jongdae just kept on looking at him with pleading, desperate eyes, didn't let go of his wrist. And Minseok was scared for his life, terrified even, that he would break and give in. But still he let it happen. Despite his words he let himself be pulled back onto the bed by this certain strangers hands.

Slowly, Minseok let his arm fall, let himself go slack in Jongdae's hold and the younger pulled him down gently, until Minseok lied next to him again. Jongdae seemed just as shocked as Minseok was. Anxiously he reached out to touch Minseok's head, as if he couldn't quite believe Minseok was still there. He let his fingers bury themselves in Minseok's hair and combed through it gently in amazement. A gentle unbelieving smile set on his features.

At this smile Minseok's last guard was smashed into nothing but a bunch of shards of fear, still dangerous, still there, but able to be forgotten for this moment.

He pulled Jongdae closer, so that they were practically nose to nose and he could feel the youngers soft, hitching breath on his chin. And a feeling of true and deep comfort and completeness, of not being alone, surged through his body. Happiness, to hold this one and only stranger he knew, save in his arms. At least tonight. 


End file.
